South Shore Hospital nurses excited for return to Boston Marathon

Saturday

Apr 12, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 12, 2014 at 9:54 AM

Despite the horror that they saw unfold at the finish line of the Boston Marathon last April 15, three emergency room nurses at South Shore Hospital who were volunteering in the medical tent that day are counting down the days until they will return, determined not to let last year's nightmare stop them.

Christian Schiavone The Patriot Ledger @CSchiavo_Ledger

WEYMOUTH – Nearly a year later, they can still smell the acrid smoke, feel the eerie silence that followed the two bomb blasts and see the blood from the waves of wounded who came streaming their way.
Despite the horror that they saw unfold at the finish line of the Boston Marathon last April 15, three registered nurses from South Shore Hospital’s emergency department who were volunteering in the medical tent that day are counting down the days until they will return, determined not to let last year’s nightmare stop them.

“We got through it and we survived and we’re coming back,” Mara Hines, 44, of Marshfield said. “You have to go back. You can’t let it beat you.”

Hines was volunteering with her colleagues Dianne Stantonsanchez, 59, of Hingham, and Angel T. Mateo, 57, of Braintree, in the medical tent near the finish line in Copley Square. The mild weather had been easy on the runners, save for run-of-the-mill complaints like dehydration and blisters, and it seemed like the three nurses would be done early.

That all changed when the first homemade bomb went off. Inside the tent, they couldn’t see what had happened, but they quickly smelled the smoke. When the second blast sounded moments later, there was little doubt that it was a bomb. The rush of patients on wheelchairs, many of them with burns and missing limbs, quickly made it certain.

The nurses went to work putting in IV lines and cutting off clothing so the injured would be ready for the operating room when they arrived at local emergency rooms.

“For 30 seconds, everyone was stunned. After that we just scrambled,” Mateo said. “You don’t have time to think that another bomb might go off next to you. We tried to help in as many ways as possible.”

It was only later, after the last of the wounded had been taken away and they, too, had been evacuated that the nurses saw the news footage and realized the full scale of what had happened. They also learned later that the volunteers in the medical tent had moved nearly 100 patients in just over 20 minutes.

“I’m amazed how many people we moved out of there,” Stantonsanchez said. “The goal was to get them out of there as soon as possible. That’s the key to survival.”

The two explosions killed three people and injured more than 260. Investigators believe brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev planted the explosives at the finish line. Tamerlan was killed during a skirmish with police in Watertown. Dzhokhar is facing terrorism charges.

When it came time to sign up to volunteer again this year, Mateo, Hines and Stantonsanchez didn’t think twice. They said they’ll be going back this year partly to support the runners who rely on them each year and partly for themselves, to reclaim a beloved annual event and prevent it from being co-opted by an act of terrorism.

“They’re trying to scare the hell out of us, but people refuse to be afraid,” said Mateo, who wears a blue and yellow Boston Strong bracelet. “We will win this. We will not be afraid.”

Christian Schiavone may be reached at cschiavone@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @CSchiavo_Ledger.